President Trump’s campaign manager laundered money through Belize

Paul Manafort, campaign manager for US President Donald Trump is in the middle of a money laundering scandal which was allegedly facilitated through a company in Belize.

This week, Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko claimed that he has documents proving that Manafort helped former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who was overthrown in 2014 hide millions of dollars though an offshore company called NEOCOM Services Limited. The company was registered with the International Busines Companies Registry (IBC) with its headquarters at # 1 Mapp Street, Belize City.

Leshchenko showed CNN copies of an invoice which allegedly bore Manafort’s signature for a payment of $750,000 for 501 computers. The invoice, he continued, matches a ledger entry from some other documents seized form the former Ukrainian President.

The IBC said that NEOCOM no longer operates in Belize having been struck from the register in 2010 and being involuntarily dissolved in 2014. The incident adds to a list of money laundering allegations brought against companies in Belize.

The incident also adds to a number of times a company registered in Belize has been named in an international money laundering scandal. In 2016, the US State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) listed Belize as a major money laundering country.